Target Twenty (The Spy Game—Book #20) E-Book

Jack Mars

• Herausgeber: Lukeman Literary Management
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

"Thriller writing at its best... A gripping story that's hard to put down." --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (re Any Means Necessary) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ From #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author Jack Mars, author of the critically acclaimed Luke Stone and Agent Zero series (with over 5,000 five-star reviews), comes an explosive new action-packed espionage series that takes readers on a wild ride across Europe, America, and the world—perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Daniel Silva and Jack Carr. A forgotten Soviet-era bunker filled with Nazi artifacts becomes the epicenter of international intrigue as CIA Agent Jacob Snow confronts a crisis masquerading as minor warfare. Uncovering plans for electromagnetic destruction that could doom the Americas, he and expert archeologist Jana Peters must outmaneuver terrorists hell-bent a countdown to catastrophe. An unputdownable action thriller with heart-pounding suspense and unforeseen twists, This is the twentieth novel in an exhilarating new series by a #1 bestselling author that will make you fall in love with a brand-new action hero—and keep you turning pages late into the night. Future books in the series are now available! "One of the best thrillers I have read this year. The plot is intelligent and will keep you hooked from the beginning. The author did a superb job creating a set of characters who are fully developed and very much enjoyable. I can hardly wait for the sequel." --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Any Means Necessary) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Leseprobe

T A R G E T   T W E N T Y

(THE SPY GAME—BOOK 20)

J A C K   M A R S

Jack Mars

USA Today and #1 bestselling author Jack Mars is the author of numerous thriller series, including Luke Stone, Troy Stark, Spy Game, and Jake Mercer series. Jack’s latest releases are the Lara King, Grant Valor, and Axel Strike series.

Please visit jackmarsauthor.com to learn more, join the email list, receive free books, and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2025 by Jack Mars. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright

SERIES BY JACK MARS

AXEL STRIKE

GRANT VALOR

LARA KING

TYLER WOLF

JAKE MERCER

THE SPY GAME

TROY STARK

LUKE STONE

THE FORGING OF LUKE STONE

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

During his time with Mossad, Eitan Katz had learned to divorce his emotions from his actions. As a member of Israel’s premier intelligence and counterterrorism force, he was often called upon to do things that would horrify others. The nation of Israel had learned long ago that when their enemies were brutal, they had to be just as brutal in order to survive.

He was grateful for that training now. In order to save the world from destruction as complete as the most terrifying nuclear winters and cosmic catastrophes imaginable, he had to be willing to do whatever was necessary.

He reminded himself of that as he killed the two guards outside of Ward Nineteen, the Division’s ultramax holding facility. He dispatched one with a knife through his brainstem and the other by snapping his neck. Both men were dead before they realized they were under attack.

Eitan lifted the guard by the knife stuck in his neck, held his eyelids open and steadied the man’s head in front of the optical reader. A moment later, the door opened.

He moved through the hallway, ignoring the calls and jeers of the other prisoners. He was here for one man only.

A patrolling guard turned the corner and saw him. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to call for help. Eitan threw his knife through that open mouth, and the guard collapsed.

He retrieved the knife, cleaned it on the guard’s uniform, grabbed his keycard, and kept moving. He had been inside the prison for thirty seconds. He wanted to be outside of the facility in another ninety.

He reached the cell he wanted and used the guard’s keycard to open the lock. The door swung inward with a hiss, and Eitan approached the man sitting on the bunk inside. He was rail-thin, and a mop of unruly hair sat atop a drawn face that drowned underneath an even more unruly beard. He lifted his eyes to Eitan, and Eitan noted with mild interest that those eyes were nearly as blue as his own.

“Get up,” he commanded the man. “We need to go now.”

The man chuckled and got to his feet. “What’s in store for me today? Drugs, electric shock, or a beating? Or perhaps I’m going to be given wine and chocolate and talked sweetly to in an attempt to lower my defenses?”

“Walk ahead of me and turn right,” Eitan commanded. “Move quickly.”

The man frowned at Eitan. “You’re new. Are you…” His eyes widened. “Are you… rescuing me?”

Eitan felt a glimmer of frustration, but that was another emotion he’d learned to ignore. “Yes. Move now, or I will fail, and the world will be destroyed.”

Most other people would have thought Eitan was lying badly, but this man knew very well the threat to which Eitan referred. Without further inquiry, the man nodded and moved out of his cell. Eitan followed directly behind, his gun extending past his quarry’s shoulder. Two Division guards stepped into view, raising rifles at the two men. Eitan shot both of them in a split second.

They left the facility and reached Eitan’s vehicle just as alarms sounded and more guards flooded the ward. For several minutes, both men sat in stiff silence, expecting at any second to be surrounded by armored vehicles and helicopters.

When they finally realized that they had escaped, Eitan sighed with relief. “Listen closely, Dr. Bledshaw. We have a lot to talk about.”

***

“What?” the Curator of the Antiquities Division thundered. “He escaped? How?”

The hapless security officer reporting the news to his mercurial boss swallowed. “He was rescued, sir.”

“Rescued? By who?”

“We don’t know, sir.”

The Curator reflexively glanced at one of the monitors on his desk. This monitor was constantly devoted to surveillance of Jacob Snow and Dr. Jana Peters. At one time, the two agents had been the Division’s most capable assets. Now, they were the Division’s most dangerous threats.

But they hadn’t broken Robert Bledshaw out of captivity. They were in their house. He supposed it was possible that the two red dots moving around the blueprint of their home in Denver were fakes, but it wasn’t likely.

He looked back at the pale security officer. “Find him. Now. Shoot him on sight. Enough games. I want him dead. The knowledge he has could ruin us.”

The officer swallowed again. “We can do that, sir, but… you don’t think there are others better suited…”

His voice trailed off when the Curator leaned over the desk. “Find. Him.”

The officer nodded, then managed an almost professional look. “It will be done, Curator.”

He spun on his heel and fled the office before the Curator could say anything else. Which was probably wise because the Curator hadn’t been this mad since before he’d traded his name for his title.

He lifted a shaking hand to his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the monitor. He considered sending Eitan after Bledshaw, but as his initial shock calmed, he thought better of that. Robert Bledshaw knew too much, but he was a mediocre combatant. Jacob and Jana didn’t know enough, but they were rapidly learning more, and they were the most dangerous combatants the Curator had ever seen.

Except for Eitan. The ex-Mossad agent was deadly on an almost superhuman level. It would be better to use him to counter the deadliest threat and then deal with the less deadly threat after.

It would be better if none of this bullshit was happening, he thought irritably.

But it was happening, and sitting here being mad about it wouldn’t change anything. He picked up his phone and dialed Eitan’s private number.

Eitan didn’t answer. When the call actually went to voicemail—to voicemail—the Curator began to tremble with rage again. He dialed the number a second time, and when Eitan actually answered, he thundered, “Why the hell aren’t you answering your phone?”

“I apologize, sir,” Eitan replied in his infuriatingly calm voice. “I was not in a private place.”

“Where are you?”

“I am in Belarus, sir, working on the assignment you’ve given me.”

The Curator blinked. “You are? Already?”

“Yes, sir. If we are to eliminate these two quietly, the groundwork must be laid and events set in motion before we draw them out.”

“Of course,” the Curator replied, no longer angry. “You’re right. Thank you. That’s actually why I’m calling you.”

“Sir?”

“We’ve experienced another emergency.”

“What’s the emergency?”

“Robert Bledshaw has escaped Ward Nineteen.”

After a brief pause, Eitan said, “That is… unfortunate.”

"Damned right, it's unfortunate," the Curator snapped. "We need to accelerate our plans. If Bledshaw gets to the right people, he can cause serious problems for us."

Another brief pause. “How serious?”

“Not serious enough to stop us, but serious enough to set us back.” A horrible thought occurred to the Curator. “If he gets to Jacob and Jana, however, their knowledge and connections might actually endanger our existence.” The Curator would never have admitted that to anyone else on Earth, but Eitan was by far his most loyal and trusted subordinate.

“You need to kill them as soon as possible, Eitan.”

“Should I visit them in Colorado, sir?”

The Curator thought for a moment. “Can you do it quietly?”

"It would be very difficult. Their handler, Tyler Wallace, is incredibly shrewd. He has eyes watching them and watching himself. It's possible, but the margin of error is very thin."

The Curator drummed his fingers on the table. “No. Don’t go to Colorado. Lure them to Europe, as we planned. But hurry, Eitan. We need to finish this quickly, or we risk losing everything.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll get started immediately.”

“Thank you, Eitan.”

The Curator hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. This was still a terrible circumstance, but Eitan was an extraordinarily capable agent. He would take care of everything. It would be okay.

He told himself that, but he couldn’t resist another glance at the monitor. He had wasted too much time. He couldn’t afford to be cavalier anymore. Those two must die, and so must Bledshaw.

And they must begin their final movement.

He picked up his phone and dialed another number, one unknown even to Eitan. The voice that answered was soft and feminine. “Yes, Curator?”

“How soon until we can activate the engine?”

“Three days, Curator.”

“Not faster?”

“Not likely faster. Not without serious risk to the machine.”

“Very well. If there’s anything you can do to lessen that time, do it.”

“Of course, sir.”

He hung up and breathed another sigh of relief. Bledshaw was too late. Even if he warned people, there wouldn’t be enough time to stop him. It would be okay. The Division would still win. They would still shape the world into something new, something better.

Something it was meant to be.

CHAPTER ONE

Jacob’s fist crashed into Uriah’s liver. He felt the muscle give way, felt the organ buckle under his assault. Uriah dropped to the ground, retching and throwing up bile.

“You nearly beat a man to death, Jacob…”

Uriah got weakly to his hands and knees, only for Jacob's boot to shatter one of his ribs. He fell to the ground, gasping and grabbing at his injured side. The gasp was cut off when Jacob's heel slammed into his solar plexus.

“You’re just as violent as we are…”

“Please!” one of the other Children of Light called. “You’re killing him!”

Jacob lifted Uriah by his hair, lined up his shot, and pulled Uriah into his punch. He heard Uriah’s orbital bone crunch as his fist impacted the man’s temple.

“You’re no better than us.”

“Jacob?”

CIA agent Jacob Snow flinched and looked at his fiancée, Dr. Jana Peters. “Sorry. I was just distracted for a moment.”

Her brow furrowed with worry. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah. Never better.”

He smiled to show her that he was telling the truth. She didn’t seem to believe him, but at least she didn’t try to reassure him again. She gestured to her laptop screen. “I’ve made sixteen copies of the data. One for us, one for Dad, one for the CIA, twelve for the news agencies we’ve decided on, and one as a cloud backup. I’ve kept the original on the hard drive. We’re ready.”

“Are we?” Jacob asked. “Are we sure that the Division won’t immediately stop all of these and then silence us?”

The two of them were in their bedroom at their house in the Colorado Rockies. In the two months since their last assignment, they had finished gathering evidence of historical manipulation and timeline altering by the Antiquities Division, a shadowy organization that ostensibly protected people from dangerous ancient artifacts. They both knew that behind their seemingly benign mission, the Division was attempting to control people until they had enough power to overthrow the world's governments and establish a new society with themselves at the head. Now, they had evidence to prove that, but they had to make sure they used it in a way that didn't allow the Division to stop them before they'd even begun.

Jana sighed and bit her lip. It made her look irresistible to Jacob, but he had too much on his mind to focus on that.

You nearly beat a man to death.

He shivered, and when Jana’s eyes snapped over to his at the sight of the movement, he said, “It’s freezing in here. You mind if I turn the heater on?”

He got to his feet before she could reply and headed to the thermostat on the wall. He was conscious of Jana’s eyes boring into his back. “I think we need to tell Tyler first and then follow his lead.”

“But we know The Division is watching Tyler,” Jana countered. “That would be the same as putting it right into the Curator’s hands.”

Tyler Wallace was their superior at the CIA. He was aware of the Division’s actions, but he continually advised caution when countering the Division and its enigmatic and dangerous leader, the Curator. The Division was an old organization, possibly even an ancient one, and it had tendrils just about everywhere, including the CIA.

“I’m not saying we tell him over the phone,” Jacob replied. “We have our weekly briefing with him tomorrow. We can talk to him then.”

The three of them met at a park near Jacob’s and Jana’s house once a week. The open-air space was much harder to bug than a private residence, and if anyone was following them, they would be spotted, so the three of them could talk there with less fear of being overheard.

Jana frowned, another look that usually made her irresistible to Jacob. “I don’t know if it’s wise to wait. We have the evidence now. We should act on it.”

“We’ve been waiting for years,” Jacob countered. “One more day won’t hurt.”

“Those are famous last words, and you know it,” Jana countered. “Come on, Jacob. We’re right here. We can end them now!”

“Or we can rush into this and give them everything we have, and then lose our only chance at defeating them,” Jacob said. “We get one chance to do this, Jana. We have to make sure we do it right.”

Jana looked away, still frowning, but Jacob could see in her eyes that he had gotten through. After a minute, she sighed and said, “All right. Fine. I hate it, but fine.”

He sighed with more relief than he expected. It hit him that he was actually afraid of this final confrontation with the Division. Not because he was particularly afraid of death—he’d accepted from as far back as his enlistment in the Army that his career choices might end in death—but because he knew that the Division would force them into a fight, and if he was forced into a fight, he might have to kill. He wasn’t sure he could do that anymore. Not after what had happened in Switzerland.

He smiled and squeezed Jana’s shoulder. “Look at it this way. We can have a nice romantic evening together without worrying about saving the world.”

She glared at him, but there was a hint of playfulness in the glare. “Oh yes,” she said drily. “Romance.”

“Hey, I’ll make you a steak dinner before I take your clothes off,” he protested. “I’ll even ask permission to kiss you.”

She laughed. "Why, how gentlemanly of you."

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t enjoy it too,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

“Did I say I didn’t enjoy it?”

She closed her eyes and leaned close. Her lips parted.

And just before they kissed, Jacob’s phone rang. White-hot fear coursed through him for a moment. It wasn’t until he saw Tyler’s number and not the Curator’s that he remembered that they were once more CIA agents, not lackeys of a man hell-bent on rewriting the world in his image.

Jana sighed, irritated at the interruption. She misunderstood the relief on Jacob’s face and frowned. Jacob picked up the phone and answered, grateful that he didn’t have to try to explain his emotions to her. “Hey, Tyler. What’s up?”

“Is Jana with you?” Tyler asked in his trademark deep voice.

“Yeah, she’s here. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, fine. I’d like to have our weekly meeting now, though. I’ll be waiting at Grissom Park at the usual location.”

The usual location was a bench located a few hundred yards past the start of the Yokum Walking Trail. It was an easy hike that the park had created to highlight the native flora of the Rockies and the surrounding foothills. Despite being easy, it was a seldom-trafficked location, and a favorite of theirs for these meetings.

“Sure,” Jacob said. “We’re on our way.”

He hung up and said, “Boss called. He wants to meet us now.”

Jana’s frustration vanished, replaced by concern. “Is everything okay?”

“He says yes,” Jacob replied as he changed, “but if he’s meeting with us now, I say no. Bring your go-bag. We might be leaving straight from the meeting to parts unknown.”

She sighed, and a little of the frustration came back. “And here I was looking forward to romantically tearing your clothes off.”

“There’s still time. Odds are we’ll be on a private flight for several hours.”

She glared at him. “I’m not having sex underneath a CIA surveillance camera.”

“You don’t have to. You can just lie back and relax, and I’ll take care of everything.”

She rolled her eyes, the only response with which she dignified that comment.

***

They met Tyler at the bench, and after a perfunctory greeting, the three of them started through the trail. The first fifteen minutes of the walk were a combination of small talk and routine business discussion. It wasn't until they reached the open meadow halfway up the trail that Tyler got to the point of this early meeting.

“Yesterday, an assassin attempted to kill me.”

He delivered this news in a matter-of-fact tone that stunned Jacob almost as much as the news itself. “What?”

“Yes,” Tyler said. “He planted an explosive device inside of my vehicle’s steering wheel. When I noticed the electrical current of the device and called a security team, he fired a single rifle round that only just missed my head. We determined the location of the shot and sent a team to apprehend the assassin, but we found him dead. We’re still examining the body, but the preliminary conclusion is that he carried a subdural explosive that was activated when he failed in his task.”

“A what?” Jacob asked.

“He had a bomb in his skull, and the people who hired him blew his head off when he couldn’t kill Tyler,” Jana explained.

“Yeah, I got that,” Jacob said. “Just… This was the Division, right?”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Tyler replied. “But I am almost certain it was.”

“Jesus,” Jacob breathed. “That’s… God.

He ran his hands through his hair, but quickly hid his distress when he saw Tyler give him a look of concern that mirrored Jana’s look earlier. He dropped his hands and said, “All right. So they’re serious about ending us.”

“Ending me, at least. The agents watching your home haven’t noticed any unusual activity there since you two left the Division.”

“They’re afraid of what we know,” Jana said. “Speaking of—”

“We should talk about a plan to monitor Division activities,” Jacob interrupted. Jana frowned at him, but he kept his eyes on Tyler and continued, “We need to figure out what they’re planning.”

“I agree,” Tyler said. “That will be difficult to do, however, now that you two have burned your bridges.”

Jacob looked away and pressed his lips together. He was the one who had burned their bridges by ignoring the Curator’s command not to attempt to rescue Jana. Of course, the Division also knew that they were gathering information on their illicit activities, so Jacob’s actions might just have been an excuse for them to do what they already planned to do.

“Jacob and I will come up with some ideas,” Jana said, still glaring at Jacob. “We’ll let you know when we have something that might turn out to be the answer to all of our problems.”

Tyler noticed her tone. He looked between them and frowned. “Is there something the two of you want to tell me?”

“No,” Jacob said. “But we’ll let you know when we have something.”

Tyler didn’t look like he believed Jacob, but he let the subject drop. “Very well. We’ll table this discussion for our next meeting.”

They finished the hike, Jacob and Tyler filling the time with meaningless conversation once more. Jana made no attempt to hide her irritation at Jacob. He had a feeling that romance wasn’t in the cards anymore tonight.